"Aside from being studio quiet, the Classic's range of sounds should more than satisfy most working players with stylistically broad repertoires"Īside from being studio quiet, the Classic's range of sounds should more than satisfy most working players with stylistically broad repertoires. It's yet another detail that adds to the superb intonation and musicality of this guitar. SoundsĪnderson has been one of the most vocal supporters of Buzz Feiten and his 'sweetened' tuning system, which is featured on all Anderson guitars, including this one. Although technically possible, this three-way switch doesn't split the middle or neck pickups, but in that down position it does apply the mid-boost to both of these pickups. In up position it splits the bridge humbucker to single-coil operation, middle position it's standard humbucking, and in down position it introduces a passive VA mid-boost. The five-way lever selects the pickups in normal fashion with the added option, via a pull/push switch on the tone control, of introducing the bridge pickup to either the neck pickup or to the neck and middle mix.īetween the master volume and tone is a smaller three-position toggle that has a dual function. Typically, the controls are not standard. The bridge HC-3 is a conventional humbucker with a "hot output, with vintage character still nicely intact that just pushes the front of the amp a touch more than the HC2, in case a bit more musical muscle is needed," says Anderson. They look like single coils, but are actually stacked humbuckers. Tuning issues? Don't be silly.Īnderson guitars always use Anderson pickups and here we have two SC1s at the neck and middle, with flush pole pieces. On the super smooth vintage-style vibrato, the E and A string tuners have higher posts than the other four and an over-tall string tree on the top two strings means that all six exit the nicely cut nut at pretty much the same angle. This same attention to detail pervades the rest of the instrument. Even under a magnifying loupe it's hard to see any abrasion marks - each fret end is perfectly domed, almost like a signature, and the fingerboard edges are just slightly rolled to give a played-in feel. It's astonishing, not least the fret work, which is much tougher to do on these harder stainless steel frets.
Set up is low and slinky (around 1.3mm on the treble at the 12th fret, through 1.6mm on the bass-side, with the barest hint of relief ), but where so many guitars would struggle - and we'd struggle to play them - every note rings out perfectly with enough height to the fret to dig in without it feeling over-tall or too big.
Sure, if you can't play anything else but a vintage Fender-like 184mm (7.25-inch) radius you're going to find this too flat, but most of us won't be thinking about the radius because our fingers will be skipping over the finely fettled medium gauge stainless steel frets at such a speed that the only thing you'll be considering is how can you afford to buy one.
The 'board has a pretty subtle compound radius that starts, Gibson-like, at 305mm (12 inches) at the nut and flattens out slightly to 356mm (14 inches) by the top, 22nd fret.
TOM ANDERSON GUITARS REVIEWS FULL
Previously known as the 'standard' neck profile, the now-called 'even taper' neck is beautifully shaped, a good full C-section that doesn't taper a great deal from its 1st fret depth of 21mm to its 22.6mm depth at the 12th. It's unmovable and a bolt-on joint that really maximises the vibration of the strings: both guitars have a glorious acoustic resonance. The precision of the modern CNC router used to cut these parts means that the fit is perfect and two bolts not only pull and hold the parts together top to bottom, they also slightly pull the neck downwards into the body.
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